The lawyers for a former Roanoke sheriff's deputy who won $150,000 in a sexual harassment lawsuit against her boss are asking for nearly twice that amount in legal fees.

Terry Grimes and Melvin Williams -- who earlier this year convinced a federal jury that former Sheriff George McMillan groped Lespia King and pestered her for hugs and kisses while on the job -- say their time and costs spent on the case amount to $290,767.55.

If a magistrate judge approves the bill, it will be assessed against the city sheriff's office.

"The people of Roanoke are going to have to pay for this," John Gibney, a Richmond lawyer who represents the sheriff's office, said Wednesday following a hearing on the matter in U.S. District Court.

Although McMillan was ordered to pay $100,000 to King and share payment for the remaining $50,000 with the sheriff's office, he's not on the hook for any of the legal fees incurred by the lawyers who sued him.

That's because Grimes and Williams are seeking payment based on a provision of the federal Civil Rights Act that holds the sheriff's office, not the individual sheriff, responsible for some of McMillan's conduct. The lawsuit included both a federal sexual harassment claim against the office and a separate state claim against McMillan as an individual for assault and battery, which resulted in the $100,000 award against the former sheriff.

Regardless of how much her lawyers collect in legal fees, King gets the entire $150,000.

U.S. magistrate Judge Michael Urbanski said Wednesday that he needs more time to make a decision. But he said Grimes' rate of $300 an hour appears reasonable.

In a motion filed last month, Gibney argued that a bill of nearly $300,000 was excessive, especially considering that it was based on the federal portion of the case that produced just $50,000 in damages.

"Perhaps the best way to approach this issue is simply to ask whether an attorney representing a private client would bill four, five or six times the amount recovered in a civil matter," Gibney wrote.

However, most of the questions Urbanski had for Grimes at Wednesday's hearing dealt not with the total tab, but with the part of his bill that covered unsuccessful efforts to broaden the lawsuit against McMillan to a class-action case.

Although nine women were barred from joining the lawsuit because of procedural rules, they ended up testifying for the plaintiff, describing experiences with the sheriff similar to King's.

King, whose four-year tenure with the sheriff's office ended in 2004, said McMillan frequently hugged her, slipping his hands down to touch her buttocks in the process. The sheriff also asked her to kiss him and sit on his lap, King said, and once told her she should dump her boyfriend for him.

Because Grimes' work for the nine women did not result in a successful outcome, he should not be allowed to bill the sheriff's office for the cost of representing them, Gibney argued.

Asked about that by Urbanski, Grimes said the women's close involvement in the case, including their testimony at trial, makes it difficult to remove them from the billing formula.

While Urbanski considers how much money King's lawyers should receive, she has yet to get a penny of the $150,000 award -- in part because the case is being appealed.